It is such a shame all these recording companies are punishing the honest, loyal customers by totally disregarding the copy protection's effect on sound quality. I followed an interesting thread around seven years ago, about Macrovision copy protection on DVDs when they were becoming popular. (Macrovision prevents making VHS copies of DVD contents by sending a signal to the VCR's gain attenuator driving it nuts causing excessive shifts in brightness and picture contrast!)
Ironically, none of the new DVD's appear to feature Macrovision, perhaps because in the era of DVD writers, who bothers to make sonically and visually inferior VHS copies? Today I am yet to hear of any DVD that cannot be ripped and copied.
Can you think of an operating system that is not prone to Virus attacks? (Remember Larry Ellison's infamous open challenge to infiltrate Oracle Unbreakable Database/ Sever Clusters' and the aftermath?) Similarly, I cannot think of na encryption, copy protection or a DRM mechanism that cannot be hacked. It is not just a matter of when, not if!
Executives of the RIAA, MPAA and major record labels should invest their time and money going behind mass violators of copyright laws. Not honest consumers, who deserve the right to play the software in whatever hardware they prefer, let it be a dedicated Cd player, PC, Car, Discman, mp3 player etc.
One final word: I travel to China very often and any DVD released anywhere in the world is available there for 6 RMB (USD 0.75) and given the 1 billion plus population in China, the loss of income due to piracy there is incalculable! (Please do not start the "DVD usage is not widespread in China as in the Western world" argument, a Chinese built DVD player costs only USD 25.00 there and with the new found wealth, almost every Chinese can buy one)
